Moscow Now Proposing Anti-Gay Law

After two regions and St. Petersberg proposed anti-gay laws, now it is Moscow’s turn.

Gazeta reports that the city authorities will adopt the St Petersberg ban on so-called ‘gay propaganda.’

Yes, we plan to adoption of this law in Moscow and now [are] just working on its development,” chairman of the Moscow City Council Committee on Health Care and Public Health, Lyudmila Stebenkova told the newspaper, adding that the committee “commends the Legislative Assembly of St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg’s authority has already passed the bill through its first reading, almost unanimously. The bill is proposed by Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party and, analysts say, will help shore up support for the party in a city where its poll numbers have been falling, as the ruling party’s have all over Russia.

The bill would generate fines for “public actions, aimed at propagandizing sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality, [and] transgenderness among minors.” It deliberately conflates homosexuality and pedophilia. The bill bans any LGBT public event, such as the existing film festival, but activists have questioned if it would ban even wearing a rainbow pin or any news report quoting openly gay people — or a performance of a Tchaikovsky symphony.

The Russian backlash on an increasingly visible LGBT movement — 52% of Russians are aware of the repeated attempts to stage a Pride march in Moscow — began in the region of Ryazan, south of Moscow, and earlier this year spread to the far-North region of Arkhangelsk. Activists now believe a federal law will follow.

In an angry opinion piece for UK Gay News, the former organizer of Moscow Pride and the most well-known Russian gay activist, Nikolai Alekseev, who travelled to Arkhangelsk November 17 to publicly challenge the anti-gay propaganda law, calls such laws “cheap populism” and castigates his fellow gay Russians for being ‘asleep at the wheel’:

In this country, you are taken seriously only if you constantly show your teeth. If you are too kind, people will not respect you simply because they will not be impressed by you. The basis is fear and not diplomacy.

As Russian politicians like to tell us: “Go to the Gay Parade in Berlin, but not on our sacred land”. If you are Russian and gay, lesbian, bi or trans, you can only enjoy your human rights abroad.

And this is the problem.

Our Russian LGBT people … Their lack of motivation to defend their rights is not an act of cowardice; it is an absence of long term vision. As some start to wake up today in St. Petersburg to fight this law which will soon directly affect them, others will probably wake up when Russia re-criminalises homosexuality. Then, it will be too late.

Alekseev points to:

The European Court of Human Rights’ decision which found Russia guilty for banning Moscow Prides. Despite the decision which is obligatory, nothing changed. Moscow keeps banning the Pride. The Council of Europe stays silent.

And argues for what Russia might listen to from overseas:

You cannot be diplomatic with those who do not even respect their own words. Russia signed international conventions that no one forced her to accept. Either the country pulls out from these institutions, or it must respect their rules.

Think what would have happen in 1962 if JFK sent a letter of protest to Khrushchev instead of organising the blockade of Cuba. Do not forget history?

Alekseev proposed that the EU “hit the Russian politicians where it will be painful for them” and ban homophobic politicians “from spending their holidays in Nice, Cyprus or Spain” and that Russia’s voting rights at the Council of Europe be suspended.

Despite 70 years away from the Russian Orthodox Church, Russians still retain fierce anti-gay opinions. In recent years, Russia's government has seen the expediency of reconciling with the Church and one of the latter's main tenants is gay-bashing. It'll be a long time before gays find justice in Russia.

In order to be a homophobe it has to occupy a significant part of your brain, and this means that homophobes are thinking about men/women rubbing penises/vaginas together in a 24/7 gay porno. Thats an awful lot of gay thoughts for supposedly straight people who hate gays. I bet even gay people dont think about gay stuff as much as homophobes do.

Homophobes (aka Anti-Gay Movement) are not protesting against bestiality, pedophilia (with/without a priest involved), rape, sexual exploitation, or any other form of non-consensual sexual act in which a victim is forced against their will to participate

The Homophobes are protesting a private sexual act being performed by two consenting adults.

HOMOPHOBE = I DONT LIKE GAY (SUPPOSEDLY) THEREFORE NO ONE SHOULD BE GAY.

Homosexuals = fighting for the right to control their own behavior.

Homophobes = fighting for the right to control other peoples behavior.